Fingerprint sensors have been recently installed in consumer equipment, such as notebook computers and mobile phones, thus increasing the opportunity to use a fingerprint authentication function. Using the fingerprint authentication function requires a user to register fingerprint information in advance. However, the registration of fingerprint information needs a special operation, which is not easy for anyone to perform. Thus, to simplify the registration operation, the following technologies have been proposed.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-99563 discloses a technology for a biometric authentication device using a face image in which the mode is shifted to a registration mode by a specific operation that only an administrator knows so that images of a plurality of persons' faces can be registered. Detection examples of the specific operation include detecting an input of specific information that only the administrator knows, recognizing the face of the administrator, and detecting that an integrated circuit (IC) card read by an IC card reader is a specific IC card.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-78443 discloses a technology for a fingerprint recognition device in which a registration management card is issued, and when the registration management card is inserted into an IC card reader, fingerprint registration is enabled.
With the known technologies described above, for example, if recognition of an administrator's face is set as the specific operation, the mode is shifted to the registration mode every time the administrator's face is recognized, thus posing a problem in that the administrator cannot enter an ordinary recognition mode with the biometric authentication device. Furthermore, the method of registering a fingerprint using a registration management card has the problem that an IC card reader or the like for reading the registration management card is needed.